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September 02, 2012

Apples and Oranges: The Seiko Black Monster and the Invicta Subaqua Specialty

Johnny wanted to see the size of a Black Monster in proportion to the 52mm Invicta SAS. These are two great watches.

The Seiko is 41mm across the dial and 46mm if you include the crown. It's much smaller than the SAS of course but it has a substantial wrist presence. If you're rocking a 55mm watch, you do get size shock when you put on something smaller, but you get used to it.

The Seiko is far more functional. You can't beat its lume. And its superior fit, feel, and finish shows that it's a different animal than an Invicta.

Everyone should have a Monster. With its lume, timeless look, and automatic movement makes it great for travel. You don't want to wake up in a hotel at night with a dead watch on your wrist.

No disrespect for the SAS, a great watch by its own right, just a completely different animal than the Seiko.

Comments

Thanks for that, you've just about convinced me to get one - that's a nice watch for $200; is it the SKX779? But man does that look puny compared to the SAS. That said, I wish the SAS was a bit smaller - more in the 47-49mm range rather than 52mm; as I wrote in my blog, 47-49mm is my sweetspot. I have one SAS in the midsize range - it is 44mm across, and a tad smaller than I would like it to be, but still a nice size and a very wearable watch.

I'm also preferring the rubber straps on the 6903 et al to the metal bracelets on the 5219 et al; the metal just makes them so heavy, even unwieldy. Maybe I should do more yoga, or maybe Invicta should just make more midsize SAS watches with bracelets (I'm starting to lose hope that I'll ever find an affordable F0010 - the midsize equivalent to the F0007 which I only see for $380 online).

There needs to be a term for "size decrease shock and recalibration", because I experienced that a few weeks ago when I took my Seiko SNAD61 only on a two-day trip. It took a few hours to adjust and then it seemed normal, even perfectly sized.

If you do get a Seiko Monster, I recommend the bracelet. It looks like a $2,000 watch in that configuration. Remember, you can't wind it. It only runs on movement. I'm wearing mine now. The size is not an issue for me and I'm six feet, 210 pounds.

I spent about an hour last night going through hundreds of Seikos on Amazon and while I found a bunch of stuff that I liked, very few stood out as "must haves" and most of those were too rich for my blood ($300+). Seiko has a lot of nice watches in the $100-300 range, and I think their quality makes a Seiko $150 watch about as good quality as an Invicta $200-250 watch, but another problem is that they're small - relatively, so at least. Of the hundreds I browsed, only a handful were 45mm or larger, and none above 48mm (and I think those included some kind of funky crown).

I don't think Seiko makes big watches, at least none above about 48mm, and the vast majority are in the 40-44mm range. Like you I'm wanting to move into more Seikos, but I don't foresee a near future in which Seikos out-populate Invictas in my collection.

Odd. Every time I post on your blog I have to do the reCaptcha thing (where you have to enter in two words that are often very difficult to decipher), which I would think would prevent some of your spam but evidently it doesn't. Maybe I have to do it because I don't have a typepad account?

yeah, I hate those deciphering symbols. When I didn't have on that protection, I received hundreds of bot spams from Russia. Now I only get dozens of domestic and some international spam. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Eventually, I'm going to want to get some 46mm Arcturas and Velaturas. I think they're close to 50mm in case size but I'll want to see those Velaturas in person before I lower the hammer.